Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 26
26
Now what do we have here? Banno thought, looking up at something he's never seen before. A series of black and white sketches, neatly framed, neatly lined up against the wall, neatly spaced in equal intervals. There were some butterflies, some flowers, some streams, and even a few of the Cora. And right in the middle...
Banno looked around and sniffed for any approaching scents. No, Luke and James were the only ones inside right now, and they were still on the upper level. He desperately wanted to get up there and find out what was going on, but surely it wouldn't hurt to spend a few seconds examining this most intriguing piece of art...?
It was the kindly Fox family that had taken him in, plus one. The kids were in the foreground, noticeably smaller than they were now. Luke and Tim he didn't really care about, but Valery was sitting near the bottom with her legs tucked underneath her rear, smiling at him, almost drowning in a poofy dress much too big for her. Behind the kids was James, each hand resting on the shoulder of one of his boys. He was smiling a gigantic retard smile, and Banno was thankful he didn't smile that big anymore. And next to him, clinging onto his arm like a climbing vine...
"Well, hello there," Banno whispered, licking his lips.
It was a vixen. A bit old for his tastes, perhaps, but still pretty. He could tell she was Valery's mother in an instant. The resemblance was that striking. She had the same face, the same fluffy tail, the same smile, the same everything. Even though this sketch had no colour, Banno would bet his remaining foot that they shared the same golden sunset shade of fur as well. This was far too fine, much too intricate in detail and delicate in touch to have been made by James or any of his ruffian boys, and unless there were other Foxes nearby he didn't know about, this could only have been drawn by Valery or her mysterious mother. He normally didn't see any kind of practical use for something like 'art' (at least not in any of the stuff Ander was so fond of), but even he could appreciate something like this. A depiction of... life.
"Mmm..." Banno moaned softly, staring at the sketch against the wall, wondering what it would taste like. He didn't know what it was drawn on, but the lines looked like black coal, so probably not very good, at least not on his tongue, anyway. But there was more to taste than what one could feel on one's tongue. There was story and emotion, feelings of love and loss, a myriad of sensations that could flit through the mind in an instant. These were not just black lines on white squares. They were symbolic of the family he would make one within himself. Soon... so very soon. What would this symbol taste like?
It was an intriguing idea for an experiment, and as much as Banno liked to experiment with different tastes, he couldn't allow himself to leave any tracks. He came out here, at great risk to the game, to... to...
Damn, how long has he been standing here? Surely no longer than a minute, but that was a minute too long. He had to hurry.
He continued down the hallway, silently lurching along, sparing only the occasional glance at the sketches slowly oozing by: the flowers, the butterflies, the forests, until he reached the incline.
It was made of a series of steps, each of equal size, rising up to the second level, with a railing along the side. Banno was by no means an idiot (far from it), so he had no problem figuring out how to use them, but something he just couldn't for the life of him understand was why these Foxes needed this place to be so damn complicated in the first place. He just didn't see the need for so many rooms and hallways and doors and windows all stuck together with planks of wood when a simple tent for each of them would have sufficed. All you needed were some good, sturdy branches and a few animal skins. But no, they'd rather spend what must have taken ages cutting down trees and chopping them up and sticking them together. Also, if you were going to go to all the trouble of doing that, then why in the Cora's name would you go and build another level on top when you could just have everything down on the ground!? If the Foxes of Grovenglen were anything like these weirdoes, then Ander must be in heaven right now.
"Crazy Foxes," Banno muttered, his lips hardly moving, and placed one hand on the railing, encircling it completely with his long fingers. He slowly started to climb, one step at a time, leaning heavily against the railing each time it was his stump's turn to touch down. The steps creaked a little, but he quickly figured out they stayed relatively quiet as long as he avoided the middle.
He had to stop for another breather halfway up, but he could hear them so clearly now, he could almost taste them now, so close. It felt like their scents were practically rushing down the steps to meet him, as if they had more sense than the ones who spawned them. They eagerly entered his nostrils and filled his head with their sweet, enticing aromas.
"Dad, I know you're really, really ticked off at me, I get that, but can I at least get a chance to explain myself? I didn't want to talk down there with that Wolf and his creepy one-eye stare."
Creepy? Why that little whelp...
He pulled himself up by the railing, the steady beats of pain erupting inside his stump barely noticeable, his heart fluttering in his chest, his excitement growing with each ghostly silent step until he finally, finally made it to the upper level, where (no surprises) there were more doors in the walls (four of them, to be exact) and the voices were coming from the second one.
Banno lurched his way over, keeping one hand against the wall for support, and quietly got down on his knees. There was a queer little hole in the metal plate halfway down, and he eagerly pressed his 'creepy' eye against it. It was a bit awkward with his long muzzle smushed up against the wood, but he could see James's back and part of his tail swishing around on the other side, and also one of the brat's hands, held out palm-up, as if begging.
If they opened this door right now, there was no way he'd be able to explain his way back to the way things were. They'd know he was pretending to be sicker and weaker than he really was, and that would be the end of the game right there. He'd have to... well, he'd just have to make the most of things, wouldn't he? Yes... either way, things would work out for the best.
They always did.
"Dad, I know you think
*
we can trust the Wolf, but -"
"I really hate it when you call him 'the Wolf' like that. He's not an animal."
Luke felt like ripping his hair out again, but such a display would not earn him any sanity points, so he paced instead, walking back and forth between his bed and his writing desk in a slightly more socially acceptable manner, looking down at the floorboards whooshing past his feet in a blur of brown. Somewhere down there was a monster just waiting to pounce, and it was up to him to make Dad see reason. "Dad, I know you think we can trust Banno, but, truth be told, he's a crazy psycho loon who's gonna kill us all, and here's why." He stopped, his fist held out before him, ready to count off all the perfectly logical reasons. Yup. Any second now. "Reason number one..." He flipped up his index finger. And he stared at it. And he stared at it some more, like it was supposed to make a valid argument for him instead of just acting as a numerical placeholder while Dad just stood there, waiting patiently with his hands crossed over his chest. "Okay, um... He grabbed me at the river, and you should have seen him, all wet and angry and screaming he was so crazy! I swear to all the gods he would have eaten me right there!" Luke stared at that single finger, knowing full well he should lower it again to zero, since Dad already believed that attacking someone poking around in your eye socket is a perfectly natural thing to do, but dammit that thing lifted him right off the ground and it should totally count towards his psycho loon argument! "Number two!" Luke flipped up his second finger. "He went all psycho on Val. Don't pretend you didn't see the way he stared at her when she brought in that sandwich! I mean, so what if he has a fever and an infection and he hadn't eaten anything in almost a week? Okay, I suppose maybe he was just staring at the sandwich, but still! I've been sick tons of times and I never drooled like that! And number three! When I tried to... you know. You should have seen him! Quick as lightning he was! No inferm, him! I mean, yeah... he was kinda... fighting for his life and all..."
Oh for gods' sake, Luke! He berated himself. Your argument is holding about as much water as a broken sieve! Make something up! Tell him you saw him playing pattycake with his own shadow! Anything! "Fourth! Um..."
"That's quite the case you're building there, Luke, but it's okay. You can stop now."
Soul don't leave me... Luke thought, realizing the hopelessness of his situation. "I'm going to get the hiding of my life, aren't I?" he asked, totally resigned to his fate. But then...
"No, son. If I thought a simple hiding could fix this, I would have done it by now."
That set the warning bells a-ringing in his head. Dad didn't mean to hide him, but surely some kind of punishment must be waiting in the wings? He tried to think of something worse than a flaming bottom, and being the imaginative fellow he was, he didn't have much trouble conjuring up images of pain and torture far exceeding anything that might realistically happen in a mere gaol, but everything that entered his mind didn't seem the sort of thing his dear old Dad would bring himself to do. He was almost afraid to ask, but ask he did. "Wh- What exactly... are you getting at?"
"I know Banno is potentially dangerous, and I know I probably am a fool for trusting him so easily. I know everything you've said about him, although maybe a bit exaggerated, is true. And I also know your mother would have given him the benefit of the doubt without hesitation."
"Aw, but Dad -"
"But I also know that she would have put her children's safety first. That is why I'm going to make it so that you'll never try anything like that again. I'll make it so that you won't even want to try. Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn..."
Luke braced himself to hear the name of whatever grievous punishment was about to befall him, his face turned away and his eyes all scrunched up, sick with anxiety.
"... you are going..."
Here it comes...
"...to saddle Jitters and you are going to ride into town."
A small bump sounded outside his door, probably the house settling in the afternoon heat (it does that a lot), not that Luke was in any condition to notice such a trifle.
Dad couldn't have said what he just thought he heard, but he was so flummoxed he couldn't even find his voice to ask.
Something about the look on his face must have been quite funny, because Dad threw his head back and guffawed at the ceiling, that patented 'Dad laugh' that could always turn even the grimmest of situations into a comedy.
If he hadn't chosen that exact moment to laugh so loudly, maybe Luke would have noticed the almost silent maelstrom raging just outside his door. Maybe he would have heard the scuffles of a restless foot. Maybe he would have noticed a shadow shifting underneath the crack. Maybe he would have seen a furious eye peeking through the key hole.
But he didn't. Neither of them did.
*
Oh you really are touched in the head you moronic piece of trash that isn't what I meant AT ALL!!
Banno balled up his fist and came within an inch of punching the wall in blind fury. He had to stuff it in his mouth to keep it from flying off against his will and also to still himself from screaming in utter frustration. The only one more perplexed than Banno was probably the runt himself. He lowered his eye back to the little hole and yes, he was standing there with that stupid look on his face, the one that said: 'I don't know what's going on, but I'm just going to stand here like an idiot until you explain it to me'. By the Cora he hated them both so much!
"I'm... going to town?" he asked, that confused expression still plastered all over his face.
"Indeed."
"And by 'town' you mean Grovenglen, right?"
"Of course! Where else would I mean?"
Banno could only see part of James's back through this tiny little useless hole, but he was probably wearing that smug smile of his. And his eyes, he'd bet they had that twinkle, too, like he was just the best, cleverest Fox in all the world.
He wanted to break down the door and bellow at the top of his lungs: What kind of a punishment is that_, James!?_
"What will I be doing there?"
"You're gonna go straight to your Uncle Jon's, and you are going to find out everything there is to know about that 'Ander' fellow they got over there. You know, Banno's Wolf friend."
Noooooo!! NOOOOO!!! Oh, by the Cora and all his eyes, no! What are you doing to me, James!?
"If you're lucky, maybe you'll even get a chance to meet him. Then you can ask anything you like."
That brat? Talking to Ander? Oh, Banno was sure they'd have all sorts of interesting things to talk about.
"I think a large part of what's got you so hot under the collar is that there's so much we just don't know about our guest, and you're so distrustful of him that nothing he says himself is going to make you stop seeing him as some child-eating monster."
I wouldn't mind eating one particularly annoying child right now...
"But, if you can talk to someone who actually knows Banno, someone who's lived with him and talked with him, then that should be more than enough to set your mind at ease, right?"
Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! For the love of the Cora, James, why can't you just SHUT UP!?
"But... I..."
Banno pressed his eye even harder against the hole so that the cold metal plate was practically digging into his cheek. Yes, have doubts, kid! Doubt like you've never doubted before!
"... If the other Wolf is Banno's friend, then how can I trust anything he says? What if they're in cahoots?"
Yes, that's right! Hell, we're more than friends, we're practically brothers! Ha!
"In cahoots?" James chuckled. "There's no way they could've been in contact since he washed up here. Unless maybe you think this is all one giant Wolf conspiracy, carefully planned out in advance? I bet chopping off Banno's foot and gouging out his eye was all part of the plan, too, hmm? Or maybe you think they plan on taking over the world? That's a bit paranoid even for you, lad."
Aaaaargh!! Banno couldn't believe this was happening. Stuff like this wasn't supposed to happen in his world. He could accept the unexpected, but only when it was fun, and this was most certainly not 'fun'.
"No, no, I understand that, it's just that, well..."
The brat looked scared. Why did he look sacred? Banno knew he should probably get going, considering how long it took him to get here. He's learned everything he needed to learn, and then some, but he couldn't drag himself away from this unholy wreck the world has become. It was like watching buzzards picking apart a corpse, except the corpse in this case was the wonderful little game he's been having so much fun with.
Until now.
"What's wrong, son?"
"Well, it's just... Don't get even madder than you already are, but I sorta came into the knowledge that Uncle Jon wrote something about that so-called 'Ander' picking up a whole wagon with just one hand. A loaded wagon. I'm not sure even Banno could do something like that, even healthy, so that must mean this other Wolf is even bigger than him! I mean, that's just ridiculous! I don't know if I can talk to something like that, considering how psycho scary Banno is just lying there in that bed all day."
Ander? Bigger than me? Scarier than me? That's the most ludicrously outrageous thing I've ever... No! That's fine! Believe it! Ander is a giant monster with flaming eyes and teeth like axeblades! He's got horns on his head that shoot lightning! He likes to eat babies in his spare time! Just don't go over there! Whatever you do... Don't! Go! Over! There!
James chuckled some more. And more. And more. It became louder and louder until his head flipped back and he was laughing at the ceiling again. Couldn't this damnable Fox do anything other than laugh and laugh and sabotage his life? "Oh my," he gasped, reaching to wipe something from his face (probably a tear, the jolly bastard). "Oh, that's good. First of all, the wagon was empty. Second, he didn't pick it up. He merely lifted it a little so Jonah could replace the wheel. Two or three fit young Foxes could have done the same thing, so don't worry, he's not a giant. He's probably more or less the same size as Banno."
Pffft! I am so bigger than him!
"Okay, but Banno is still a giant, Dad."
You bet I am.
"Well, if you're too scared to go, I guess I can ask Timothy..."
"No!" the brat yelled, a smile spreading across his face from ear to ear. "I'll go! I'll... Oh wow, thanks, Dad! You have no idea how much better I feel now."
"Don't mention it. Truth be told, I think I'll be able to sleep a bit better myself knowing exactly what we've gotten ourselves into."
"Then why don't I go right now, today? I can get Jitters saddled and ready in ten minutes!"
What!? No, no, no... This keeps getting worse!
Maybe... maybe he should try and end it all right now? Even on one foot he could probably dispatch these Foxes without too much trouble, if he can take James by surprise (and he will be plenty surprised). But what about the kids? If just one of them gets away, he won't be able to chase after them. Ander will find out about him, and what then? He can't face him yet, not like this! Not as a damn cripple!
"Now? Luke, it's past noon."
"So?"
"So, you'll never make it before dark."
"I'll ride through the night. I can handle it."
"No."
Oh, thank goodness...
"But, Dad! It's no big deal! I can just -"
"Jitters is getting old. Too old for such a trip, really. I love the gal; she's a real trooper, but what if (gods forbid) she trips and breaks a leg and strands you in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night? Will you still think it's 'no big deal' as you wander around in the dark, getting more and more lost? There are snakes in those woods, boy. And mountain lions. And bears. And that's if you don't freeze to death first. Need I go on? I might just get nominated for the Crappiest Father of the Year Award just for letting you ride to the 'Glen all alone in the first place, and now you want to do it at night? Nope. You can go first crack o' dawn. That'll give you just enough time to reach Jon by sunset, and that is final. You should be glad I'm giving you a chance like this instead of flaying the hide from your bottom. You understand me?"
"Yes, Sir."
Banno curled his lip in disdain, watching this little brat act so dejected when he was clearly over the moon. The little fake! That's what he was, and that's why Banno hated him so much. He was a fake. He liked to act like a grownup, but he couldn't get rid of the thing threatening his family. He acted like he was sorry when he apologised for it, but he wasn't. He acted like the lord and master of his little brother, but he was really just a scared little milksop whining for his mommy. Everything this kid did was just a façade. He's a dishonest fake liar. Not real.
"Good," James said and started -
Oh crap. Through the tiny little hole in the door, Banno could see no more than James's back and part of his elbow, but now that elbow was swivelling around and the back was turning into the front. He had turned away from his faker of a son and was now coming straight for the door, growing larger with each step until his form blotted out everything else.
Banno considered the long path back to bed. First, he'll have to drag himself to the steps, throw himself down them, crawl through the tunnel with the pretty sketches, open the door, and then claw his way back underneath the sheets. If he can do all that in under three seconds without making any noise, he should be fine.
Or...
Banno tensed up, licked his lips, and waited. The game was bound to end sooner or later. His only regret was that it had to be so... anticlimactic.
James's footsteps thudded to a stop right on the other side of the door, and the knob started to turn...
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